Fight of the Ages…Donald Trump vs. Jesus?

“It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.”

~ Bertrand Russell ~

I posted this quote as a Facebook status update and noticed that quite a few people responded.  This got my mind gnawing away at the sturdy bone of this thought.  There’s a lot of meaty truth here if you take the time to sit and chew on it for a while.

To make this personal, I’ll divulge some of my own history with the Pursuit of Stuff.   I grew up both poor and deeply enmeshed in fundamentalist Christianity.  This created quite a conundrum.

On one hand, I grew tired of the constraints of poverty.   I’ll never forget seeing a Time magazine published in the late ’80’s with the very distinctive photo of Donald Trump on the cover.  He was dressed in a black tuxedo and his determined, powerful gaze was magnetic.  He was clearly in the prime of his rise to power and I was captivated by the splendid possibilities that he seemed to embody.  I became a covert disciple of Trump–reading his ghost-written books and dreaming of empire-building when I came of age.

Now back to the “other hand”.   The particular fundamentalist sect of Christianity I was raised in preached a gospel that militated against much enjoyment of life.  No TV (yes, I never saw a single episode of the Brady Bunch), no drinking, no movies, no thinking impure thoughts.  Men always wore long pants and long sleeve shirts in public.  Women were commanded to wear dresses that came “well below the knee at all times” and to never be seen in public without proper hosiery.   Women also were  never to cut their hair and usually wore them pinned up into massive buns on top of their heads.  I’m not making fun of this, it’s just an unusual lifestyle and I want to be sure you understand the contrast.

We were taught that to follow Christ meant that  “… you probably won’t have much in this world, but you’ll get a golden reward in the world to come…”.  Higher education was not encouraged and most of the members of this group slaved away in menial jobs that barely kept the bills paid.

I held both extremes inside my psyche.  It was deeply troubling, this tension between God and mammon.  I desired the finer things of life but I was afraid of the consequences of turning away from the demands of my faith.

I’ll abbreviate what could be a very lengthy tale of my journey to this point.  Basically, I became disillusioned with the harsh theology I was raised with and moved into the mainstream of modern life.  I plunged headlong into entrepreneurial pursuits and eventually found myself worn out and confused by the lack of fulfillment this brought.  My “preoccupation with possessions” stood as a barrier to living freely and living nobly.

My search has brought me to a middle path, so to speak.

Here are a couple of understandings that have emerged:

1).  A preoccupation with possessions just means that we’ve “bought into the big illusion” that we are primarily made of STUFF. If that is true then we should definitely rake together as big a pile of STUFF as we can and sit on top of it.

2). If we can’t accept that this is the ultimate meaning of life, then we must seek to see behind the curtain…to recognize the illusion for what it is.

3). I have come to know very clearly that we are “…not human beings having a spiritual experience.  We are spirit beings having a human experience.”

With that grand realization as my internal North Star, I can freely enjoy the stuff of life but remain detached from the drama of The Chase For More.

We–you and I–are here on earth to give birth to Who We Really Are.  The power and freedom and simple splendor of this reality transcends position, possessions, appearances, reputation, and any other manifestation of the eg0-story you might care to throw in.

The great and mighty truth is that “you are more…much more…than you can possibly know”.

As singer Jewel says in her song, “Life Uncommon”

Lend your voices only to sounds of freedom
No longer lend you strength to that which you wish to be free from
Fill your lives with love and bravery
And you shall lead a live uncommon

It turns out that the stuff that makes up an uncommon life is not stuff at all!

I would love to continue this conversation with you…please comment by clicking the link below.

What are some of YOUR thoughts about this?